Re: check-news target fails if NEWS file starts with a copyright header

[Jim Meyering]

Peter Simons wrote:
> Karl Berry writes:
>  > However, I also see no harm in looking at the first 20 lines instead
>  > of the first 10 lines to match the version.
>
> yes, I agree with Karl here. The current implementation enforces a
> policy that feels rather odd. A NEWS file that features the release
> heading in line 10 is considered valid, but one that features the
> heading in line 11 is not. This is really quite arbitrary and not
> particularly intuitive.

The penalty for an inadequate test would be to release without updating NEWS.
That particular file is so visible that I think it's worth making the default 
test
very strict.

As with nearly all gnulib-imported files, if you don't like
the way it's done by default, you have options:

  - disable this particular test
  - patch the file (via gnulib-tool) to test the way you'd prefer

FYI, other tools (build-aux/do-release-commit-and-tag) require
that line 3 of NEWS contain the magic line, so relaxing this test to
look at 10 lines was already throwing a bone to those who do things differently.

    $ build-aux/do-release-commit-and-tag --help
    Usage: do-release-commit-and-tag VERSION RELEASE_TYPE

    Run this script to perform the final pre-release NEWS update
    in which the date, release-type and version string are recorded.
    Commit that result with a log entry marking the release, and apply
    a signed tag.  Run it from your project's top-level directory.

    Requirements:
    - you use git for version-control
    - a NEWS file, with line 3 identical to this:
    * Noteworthy changes in release ?.? (????-??-??) [?]
    - a version-controlled .prev-version file

    Options:
      --help     print this help, then exit
      --version  print version number, then exit

    EXAMPLE:
    To update NEWS and tag the beta 8.1 release of coreutils, I would run this:

      do-release-commit-and-tag 8.1 beta

    Report bugs and patches to <address@hidden>.